Related Articles

• 1 Develop a Staffing Plan for a Business Organization
• 2 Formula for Calculating Staffing Needs
• 3 Different Types of Staffing Plans
• 4 Develop Staffing Strategies That Work

By creating and using a staffing model, a small business can maximize efficiency by ensuring it is staffed with the right number of people, possessing the relevant skill sets to meet critical business needs at the appropriate time. Accurate staffing is particularly important in a small business, because many positions can represent a single point of failure. In a large business, gaps in staffing can be covered by other areas and overstaffing can be absorbed until attrition occurs, but this is not the case in small businesses, where one staff member represents a significant percentage of the total employees.

1.

Identify the critical skills and job roles needed to staff the company. Develop a baseline staffing level, made up of staff members whose absence would have significant impact on the basic functioning of the business.

2.

Identify gaps within the organization. Determine if critical needs exist that are not being met with current staffing levels or if any skill sets are needed which are not possessed by any current employees of the company. Assess if the gaps can be filled with internal actions such as transfers and cross training or whether external recruitment efforts will be needed.

3.

Forecast the future needs of the organization. Review the goals, mission statement and strategic plan for your small business, to identify the areas in which the company is expected to grow in the future. Consider any planned expansion to product lines, new customers and market segments or the acquisition of competitors, for example. Identify the additional staffing or skill sets needed to achieve this level of growth and identify if the additional positions will increase the permanent base staffing level or should be temporary to address a defined short-term need.

4.

Account for absences, including both those which can be controlled -- terminations, for example -- and those which cannot be controlled, such as medical leaves. Identify retirement-eligible staff and determine if actions can to be taken to train other staff to replace those duties when retirements occur or if the business will need to hire from the outside.

5.

Develop recruitment plans to address any issues that cannot be dealt with through internal training and succession planning. Consider when you will need to recruit to have essential staff on board. For example, if you are recruiting staff with hard-to-find skills, you may want to have an open recruitment and hire staff members whenever you can find someone suitable -- even if no gap exists -- to be sure you have appropriately skilled individuals when you need them. Document the plans in writing, but adjust them as changes to the business plan arise.

Tip

• Identify which positions must be filled with permanent staffers and which -- if any -- can be staffed with temporary employees or interns.

About the Author

For more than a decade, Tia Benjamin has been writing organizational policies, procedures and management training programs. A C-level executive, she has more than 15 years experience in human resources and management. Benjamin obtained a Bachelor of Science in social psychology from the University of Kent, England, as well as a Master of Business Administration from San Diego State University.

Photo Credits

• Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

Choose Citation Style